Can You Hear Us?
by shinelrond
Summary: An unknown elf witnesses a tradgedy and gets a different perspective on the second born(Warning:9-11 content)


I warn that this is a depressing piece but it contains no foul language or situations not suitable for younger audiences. It contains a situation best not viewed by anyone but which was viewed by many.  
  
  
  
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I have never felt them as brothers.  
  
The line of men has been far removed from me for many years.  
  
But there comes times when boundaries no longer exist.and one sees the soul of a sibling in everyone.  
  
Oh, that day came.it came with fire and collapse, with death and struggle, with pain and suffering.  
  
Not as I would have wished it.  
  
But I saw it.  
  
American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 92 people.hit the north tower of the trade centers.  
  
United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 people.hit the south tower of the trade centers shortly after.  
  
I saw the vehicles carrying angels wearing faces of humanity. Faces filled with hope when it seemed it was another thing to die. But they hoped and they prayed. They sweated and bled.  
  
The ones who created the fire rejoiced and celebrated, claiming that they had victory.  
  
We had pride and not much else.save each other.  
  
They had victory. We had millions of people holding on to one singular vision.  
  
We had innumerable tears shed by people far from the flames.  
  
The girl studying for her exams.receiving the call from her father to turn on the news.  
  
The boy just waking up and flipping on the television as he sat down to breakfast.  
  
Seeing a world collapsing.  
  
The emergency worker witnessing his brothers thousands of miles away fighting insanity itself.  
  
They had victory.  
  
We had pieces. We had millions to pick them up.  
  
I saw brothers and sisters working to save who they could, wishing they could do more.  
  
I saw them plunge back into the darkness with dust filled lungs. I saw them return with dust filled lungs. Carrying a choking child. Carrying a man in uniform whom they'd spent years fighting such madness alongside.  
  
Carrying the still body of a woman who they knew only by the fact that she was there.  
  
Carrying a child who'd never live to see the light above the smoke.  
  
Hardly able to breath, quivering.crying, I saw them fight to go back.  
  
If nothing more, the race of men has evolved into people who will push themselves to the wall to save others.  
  
From those who owned restaurants nearby who fed those struggling against the delusion, to the child emptying her piggybank's contents into the collection at school for the victims.  
  
And.at the moment the towers collapsed.I would've been proud to call myself human.  
  
Those who fought fire dug their axes into the ground and shrank behind them as a wave of burning hot air and dust flew around them.and they picked up.and went back.for the brothers and sisters still inside.  
  
Those who tended the wounded went in as close as they could without being in danger.and farther.to help those who survived and were still trying to free themselves of the ruble.  
  
Those who worked near the building.those who worked a state away.rushed in to do what they could. The men and the women.the tired and the dehydrated.donating blood, building stretchers with donated wood.  
  
But there was more, in my amazement, Ilúvatar there was more.  
  
Those who claimed victory had attempted an attack on the safety of the very country, on the leadership of thousands.  
  
That was not what amazed me. No. The potential for men to be destructive is limitless.  
  
That was not what amazed me.  
  
The fact that they didn't succeed is what amazed me.  
  
Armed with simple tools, these men attempted to take lives with lives. The lives would not comply with this plan.  
  
Again, men and women.they voted on it, such a simple thing.they voted to give their lives not in taking, but in saving.  
  
They said I love you to those whom they did, to those whom they could.and gave their lives selflessly.  
  
They knew that life was not an option after that point.and still they chose it, if not for themselves, then for others.  
  
Those who claimed victory thought that ordinary men and women.would bend without the choice of life.didn't see the hearts beating in their chests.probably because they can't feel the one beating in their own.and that was a grave mistake on their part.  
  
Fear can only dominate those who have never felt freedom. Those men and women.had freedom etched into their souls.into their minds.into their hearts.and fear tried to break that.but it is not easily done.  
  
They may have felt fear, but a burning urge that lies within them all to do something other than feel fear.won over.  
  
United Airlines Flight 93 crashed. 45 people were on board. They had children.they had wives and husbands.they had people who cared about them. These people are heroes and I am not alone in thinking so.  
  
Then came the bombing of another building. The collapse of another symbol of protection, of freedom.  
  
American Airlines Flight 77, carrying 64 people on board hit the Pentagon.  
  
And with no less vigor than their brothers and sisters, the people of Washington responded to it. The blood and tears came, the sweat and fear. The uncertainty.  
  
  
  
It stopped there.at least, in terms of bombings it did. The men and women still carried on trying to save who they could. Those donating blood still did so. Those donating money still did so. Those praying and hoping.still did so. Oh, that was where it all began. That was when the whole of the world stood and took notice of the true power of the people, both in their power to destroy.and their power in compassion. When the whole of the world saw the face of a man with great power.step out amongst the ruins and tell his brothers and sisters.that the cowards responsible would have no rest. When the whole of the world saw the face of a man hiding behind a camera, proclaiming that they had it coming.  
  
No one has death coming save those who wish it upon others.  
  
And those men and women knew that. They saw it when the flag was hung from the side of the pentagon that had fallen. They saw it when poll was raised, the flag furled out from it. They felt it when billions worldwide stood and had a moment of silence for those fallen, for those who had given their lives for others.  
  
  
  
I was blown away. Nothing, nothing I have ever seen in my millennia's of existence.compares to that day. Not a nation, but a world untied. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and fellow workers, neighbors and strangers, people of every colour and ethnicity, of every race and religion. They were one. Forgetting who they believed in, who they pledged allegiance to, what symbol they wore on their breast and what flag they looked up to. Billions of people, staring out upon the world with a unified vision.  
  
Have you ever seen such a thing?  
  
I was lucky enough to have witnessed it.for many of my people did not. But I will tell my children of their brothers and sisters far across the ocean who, on one day, were better people with stronger hearts than us by far.  
  
Yes, the race of men has changed. Many say for the worst but they have not witnessed this. This day, these people, this hope, this unbending will, this undying resolve.  
  
Along with the erasing of boundaries came strengthening of bonds.  
  
United under one singular vision.of safety.of peace.  
  
  
  
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This was a hard story for me to write. Difficult in many ways, I just thought it would be something to have an outsiders view of this, at least what I think an outsider (particularly one with little faith in us) would see.  
  
I'm expecting a lashing out from this piece, which your free to do, but I mean no offense to anyone.  
  
Thousands lost their lives on September 11 in the worst act of terrorism I have ever witnessed and thousands gained the title of hero.  
  
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/rescue.victims.html  
  
Thousands will be remembered. 


End file.
